Hydrant



Aug. 26 1924.- I 1,506,259

w. s. SHERMAN HYDRANT 1 1 Filed March 29, 1-922 2 Sheets-Sheet. 1

l 37 I @8- 1w 1 I 1 T o 3Z7 5 fl 25 1'1" any 0 ,1? w l 17 20 f I/ I i I 7 1 F331- E? 55 g INVENTOR Patented Aug. 26, 1924,

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HYDRAN T.

Application filed March 29, 1922.

fication, reference being had to the accompanyin drawings.

In al approved hydrants, the gate or valve mechanism for controlling the flow of water is built into or placed at the lower portion of the tubular hydrant body, so that it will be protected from freezing and so that the water can be drained from they body after the gate or valve is closed.

In hydrants of this class heretofore used, the gate or valve is moved to closed position against water pressure by shafts, screws, and other various operative connections which re-act upward against the head of the hydrant and place the whole hydrant body under tensile strain.

In the event of breaking or rupture of the hydrant body the gate or valve is thrown wide open by the pressure of the water.

The shafts, screws, or other operative connection used to control the opening and closing movements of the gate or valve are housed in the bore or water passage of the hydrant body, and interfere with the flow of water required for street washing and fire fighting.

Moreover, the use of stuffing-boxes in the heads of these hydrants requires the bore or water passage of the hydrant to terminate in a substantially square top, so that water outlets from the bore cannot be properly curved to avoid friction on the water flow.

An object, therefore, of the present invention is to overcome the objections named.

Other objects and advantages of the inventionwill be set forth in the ensuing description.

Figure l of the drawings is a side elevation of the improved hydrant, with a portion broken away to expose inner parts to view.

Figure 2 is a plan view, with no parts shown below the line 33 of Figure 1.

Figure 3 is a sectional view taken on the line 33 of Figure 1, with no parts shown below the line H.

Figure 4 is a sectional view taken on the line 4- .1: of Figure 1.

Serial No. 547,904

Figure 5 is an enlarged sectional view taken in the same direction asF-igure 1.

Like characters of referencede signate like parts in all the figures.

The improved hydrant includes a vertical tubular main body 10 which may be set in the ground or in streets or sidewalks as a delivery outlet for water mains, the upper portion of this body being formed with one or more branches or nozzles 11 which are closed against the entrance of foreign matter by caps 12.

The lower end of the body 10. is provided with an elbow 13 for connection with a water main 14.

This elbow 13 may be cast integrally with the body 10; but to facilitate construction it is possibly preferable to cast it separately, the upper end of the elbow being formed with a flange 15 which is secured to a similar flange 16 on the body 10 by bolts 17.

The outer or inlet end 18 of the elbow 13 may be connected to the water main 14 in any approved manner, such, for example, as by inserting the nipple end 19 of the main into the elbow with the tapered fit shown in Figure 5.

The elbow 13 and water main 14 may both be formed with lugs 20 and be held in assemblage by bolts 21 passing through said lugs.

In arranging a gate or valve mechanism to control the flow of water through the body 10, gate-way 22 is formed in the outer or inlet end of the elbow 13 between two downward convergent seats 23 which are formed in said elbow.

A tapered gate 24 is provided and adapted to close downward between the two seats 23, this gate being shown in open position in the dome 25 of the gate 22 in Figure 5.

The dome 25 is flanged as at 26 and secured to the flange 27 on said elbow 18 by bolts 28. I

A head-piece 29 is secured to the dome 25 by bolts 30, and a shaft31 to open and close the gate 24 is journaled vertically through the upper wall'32 of said dome and through said head-piece; this shaft being provided with a fixed collar 83 which rests on said wall 32 and fits in said head-piece.

The lower end of the shaft 31 is screwthreaded through the upper portion of the gate 24:, and rotating said shaft the gate may be opened or closed; the collar 33 preventing reaction of the gate from moving the shaft up ordown.

The head-piece 29 is provided with a stuffing-box 34 to prevent leakage of water past the shaft 31.

The gate mechanism shown, although well adapted for use in this instance, is well known in the art.

To enable the gate 24 to be opened from above the ground, a shaft 35 is detachably connected to the upper end of the shaft 31 and extends up to and through abearing 36 cast between the two upper two branches 11 of the body 10.

To maintain a suitable working clearance for this shaft 35 through a side-walk or the ground, its upper portion is housed by a tube 37 which is cast integrally with the main body 10 through a web connection 38; and the lower end of said shaft and the upper or exposed end of the shaft 31 are housed by a tube 39 whose lower end removably embraces the stufling-box 34 and whose upper end telescopes movably with the lower end of the housing 37.

Access to the stufiing-box 34 may be had by sliding the tube 39 up into the housing 37 1t will be seen that in the event the main body 10 is broken off the separable connection of the tube 39 with the stuiiing-box 34 and the similar connection of the two shafts 31 and 35 will allow suflicient yielding to avoid injury to the gate structure. 7

Moreover, a collision of any heavy object in a direction in which a collision would commonly be expected would tend to raise the tube 39 up clear of the stuffing-box, 34 and also entirely disconnect the two shafts 31 and 35.

In placing the shaft 35 entirely outside the bore 40 of the main body 10 it does not in any way interfere with the flow of water up said bore.

In order to automatically drain the bore 40 of the body lOafter each closing of the gate 24, a valve chamber 41 is formed under the elbow 13 with its walls 42 preferably integral with said elbow; this chamber being in permanent communication with the bore 43 of the elbow through small holes 44 which act as a strainer.

The bottom of this chamber 41 is a separable plate 45 which is secured to the walls 42 by screws 46.

The plate 45 is provided centrally with a number of small outlet holes 47, and these holes are closed by a valve 48 which seats on the upper or inner surface of the plate; the valve having 'a stem 49 which extends down slidably through the plate.

A short thrust-rod 50 extends from the lower portion of the gateway 22 down slidably through the lower wall 51 of the elbow 13 and througha stuffing-box 52 depending from said wall, the upper or inner end of this thrust-rod being formed with a head 53 to keep it from sliding entirely down outward.

A lever 54 is fulcrumed centrally in a depending bearing 55 on the wall 51 of the elbow 13, one end of this lever extending into the path of downward movement of the thrust-rod 50 and the other end into the path of downward movement of the stem 49 of the valve 48.

It will be seen that when lowered to closedposition in the gate-way 22 it forces the thrust-rod 5O downward and thereby causes the lever 54 to lift the stem 49 and valve 48, thereby allowing the water to drain from the elbow and the main body,

The elbow 13 may be formed with a depending flange 56 to serve as a base and rest on any suitable foundation. 1

In forming the lower end of the hydrant body 10 with the elbow 13 and placing the the gate 24 is 7 gate or valve mechanism in the outlet end of,

said elbow, the operative connections for controlling the gate or valve mechanism may pass up to an accessible position on the outside of said body and thus avoid any interference with the flow of water up the bore 40 of said body.

The two upper branches 11 form a good support for the bearing 36 of the shaft 35 and afford protection vformsaid shaft from collision from moving objects, and the placing of said bearing between said branches places it high enough to take any side thrust exerted against the upper end of said shaft by a wrench or other lever usedto rotateit.

The following is claimed 1. A hydrant comprising a body provided with an elbow, a gate operating in the elbow, a thrust rod slidable in the elbow and located in the path of the gate, a down: wardly closing valve controlling drainage from the body and comprising a. stem slidable in the elbow, and a lever external to the elbow and fulcrumed intermediate its ends thereon, one end of the levercooperating with the stem, and the other end of the lever cooperating with thethrustdrod whereby the valve will be opened when the gate is closed. g

2. A device of the class described, constructed as set forth in claim 1, and furthercharacterized by the fact that the elbow carries a removable seat wherewith the valve coacts, the elbow being providedwith a depending flange defining a chamber which houses the lever, the seat and the thrust rod, the chamber'being open at the bottom to give access to the seat and the lever.

3. A hydrantcomprising a body provided at its lower end with an elbow, the hydrant being supplied at its upper end with a pair of horizontally spaced lateral upper noz zlesf and being equipped with a pair of horizontally spaced lateral lower nozzles located below the upper nozzles, the body being provided with an outstanding web located between the lower nozzles, the web carrying a vertically elongated tubular member, a bearing connecting the upper nozzles, a gate controlling the elbow, an operating device for the gate and movable in the bearing, the

operating device passing through the tubu- 10 Witness my hand this 25th day of March, 15

WARREN S. SHERMAN. 

